Giving Notice of Marriage

Hi everyone! My fiance and I are hoping to tie the knot in June.  We put a call into the registry office to make an appointment to give our notice. It has an automated system that directs you to leave a message and they will call back. It's been three days and no return call. I've called again and left another message today. It's got me a bit nervous because my fiance visa expires the 15th June.

Another question I have about what I'm required to bring if I'm a non EU passport holder per the registry website:

If you are a non EU passport holder you will be need to show:

    * a visa providing you entry clearance, expressly for the purpose of marriage or civil partnership in the UK
    * a certificate of approval with written permission of the Secretary of State (you can get this from the Home Office)
    * a document showing that you have settled status in the UK eg indefinite leave to remain

I have the visa but I'm not sure what they mean by permission from Secretary of State. This was the first time I'd heard of this. And what kind of document do they need to show I have a settled status. Isn't that what my fiance visa is?

Thanks

I have the visa but I'm not sure what they mean by permission from Secretary of State. This was the first time I'd heard of this. And what kind of document do they need to show I have a settled status. Isn't that what my fiance visa is?

You only need to satisfy one of the requirements there, not all of them .

Item 1 is your fiance visa, which gives you permission to marry in the UK. That is all you need.

Item 2 on the list is the COA (Certificate of Approval), which was needed for people who were already living in the UK on a different visa. Your fiance visa already gives you permission to marry here, so you don't need a COA (plus, as of May 9th, the COA has been abolished and so item 2 on the list no longer exists).

Item 3 is proving that you have ILR (settled status) in the UK... and you wouldn't be able to meet this requirement anyway because you can't get settled status until you have been married and living in the UK for 2 years on the FLR(M) visa (which you need to apply for after you are married, but before June 15th). It's for people who have permanent residence in the UK, but are not citizens. These people do not need a fiance visa or a COA to marry because holding ILR gives them the same right as a UK citizen to marry here.

Thanks for the reply. It had me worried there. All the paperwork hoops one has to jump through with immigration. I thought there was going to be another hurdle.

I just spoke with the registry office and they said that there was no way that I could have a ceremony before 15th June because they are so backed up. Since I'm a non EU passport holder I can go to another borough though. Any suggestions for an area that might not be as busy?

white: we are running into the same issue too. We called like a week ago to put in our appointment request and the office can't get us in to give our intent until June 1st!!

thankfully our ceremony will be small with a few witnesses so the date of the ceremony can be fudged a bit. Sounds like your in a bit of a rush though. Have  you tried calling the offices and seeing if anyone can squeeze you in? Where are you located?

ziptang: I'm in Ealing. After calling borough after borough registry offices none with anything sooner than 10th June and some into mid July, the last one I called just had a cancellation! They've got us in for 2:30 tomorrow!   

Thats amazing news! congrats!

Thanks for this thread, it really kicked us in gear to do ours, we're in Ealing but giving notice at Westminster, that's okay isn't it? We're booked in for 16th June to give notice, our ceremony is 16th July

We're going this week.  They said to call ahead but my fiance walked over today and they said we can just walk in to take care of it tomorrow.   We are doing the DCF, so we want to get married ASAP and get the ball rolling on that cause the waits are not extending out til 10 months!

And done.  And we saw the rooms at the town hall where it will be, and they were very nice!  it will be July 22.

White Wabbit: how did it go? any awesome details to share?

Curious as we have our meeting to give intent tomorrow. Our ceremony is scheduled for 7-12-11.